


see it all in bloom

by zenelly



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, implicit but never explicit confessions, it's literally all different kisses, nebulous canon adjacency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenelly/pseuds/zenelly
Summary: A series of kisses, from Natsume to Tsumugi to Natsume.(prompts from twitter)
Relationships: Aoba Tsumugi/Sakasaki Natsume
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65





	see it all in bloom

**Author's Note:**

> they are in LOVE and everyone is welcome to meet me in temptation magic's pit about it.
> 
> title from "in bloom" by neck deep.

> A flurry of kisses

In the moment after Tsumugi absolutely loses control of his faculties and kisses Natsume the way he’s wanted to since they were both embarrassing and terrible at talking to each other five years ago in high school, there is silence. The air itself is still. Tsumugi barely dares to breathe. They stare at each other, Tsumugi searching Natsume’s face for any hint of a reaction.

Natsume wrinkles his nose. “What was that?”

“Ah… a kiss?”

“Disgusting.” Natsume’s eyes narrow. “Do it again.”

And it’s just such a _Natsume-kun_ thing to say that Tsumugi can’t do anything but laugh as he leans forward again. Natsume tilts his face sweetly up, offering a cheek to Tsumugi, only to squeak when he’s bombarded with a flurry of kisses. Tsumugi can’t help himself. He presses kisses across the delicate bridge of Natsume’s nose, the planes of his cheeks, the freckle that is tucked against the undercurve of his jaw like a secret just for Tsumugi, and then-

Again, gently, across the lips. A moment of pressure, of softness.

Tsumugi rests his forehead against Natsume’s. “Still disgusting?”

“Just the worst,” Natsume mutters, squirming his way closer, pressing ice-cold hands along Tsumugi’s ribs. “I’ll have to show you how it’s done, clearly.”

“Clearly.”

* * *

> Forehead kisses

“And another thing, Senpai,” Natsume continues, turning around to see-

Well.

Alright, so Switch’s schedule has been rough recently, and Tsumugi has never really known when to give up and get some rest, so finding him asleep in the chair, his last-minute handstitching (because yes, Natsume-kun, the stylists have done an excellent job, but doesn’t it _mean_ more when someone from Switch works on the outfits?) a pile in his lap, shouldn’t and isn’t a surprise. Natsume himself has been feeling the drag of exhaustion more than usual these last few days. He’s caught a few catnaps here and there while they’ve waited on promotional photos but.

Apparently, Tsumugi hasn’t. Until now.

“Ah, what am I going to do with You, Senpai?” Natsume crouches, letting his hand come up to brush away the heavy curls on Tsumugi’s forehead. His broad face is handsome and relaxed in slumber, even with the dark circles beneath his eyes, and Natsume’s thumb sweeps across soft skin. Back and forth. Softly, so as not to wake him.

He leans forward.

Kisses Tsumugi’s forehead. Lingers, because it’s hard not to, when he has Tsumugi’s warmth beneath his lips like this. Kisses his forehead again, because one more won’t hurt when Tsumugi is unconscious and can’t hold it against him.

Maybe he can sleep a little longer.

* * *

> Hand kisses

“If that’s all Then,” Natsume says as he tucks a strand of hair behind his ear, “I’ll be Going. I have a filming schedule for that variety show that I can’t be late For.”

Yes, that’s all they had to talk about, Tsumugi thinks, but he doesn’t want Natsume to leave either. He’s handsome in the midmorning light, gold-limed and soft around the edges, and Tsumugi wants- just a moment longer to look at him, to see the fall of his sapphire earrings against his jaw. To bask in the radiance of his presence.

Though the suspicious look Natsume shoots him as he stands says that he’s onto Tsumugi’s tender train of thought and isn’t pleased.

“Natsume-kun,” Tsumugi calls out, half-standing from his desk. He catches the hem of Natsume’s sleeve with careful fingers, tugging. He wants to lean over and kiss him but Natsume is already made up for the day, and Tsumugi would never hear the end of it if he smudged the faint lip-tint Natsume is wearing.

There’s nothing else for it then.

Tsumugi brushes a kiss across the knobs of Natsume’s knuckles. Once, twice, lingering on the skin-warmed rings he’s wearing, only one of which bears any significance. “Do a good job today, Natsume-kun,” Tsumugi says, his lips brushing tenderly against Natsume’s skin. “I’ll be waiting for you to get home.”

Tellingly, Natsume doesn’t immediately snatch his hand back, but instead turns it over to cup Tsumugi’s chin. “I always do a good Job, Senpai.” Then, softer, “I’ll see you later Tonight. Love You.”

* * *

> Kisses up the arm

The company party has been going on for approximately two hours longer than Natsume would have liked it to and the crowd is beginning to wear on him, raw-edged and jittery with it. He places his empty flute of champagne on a nearby table and decides that he’s _tired_ and he wants to go _home_ , the whole hubbub be damned.

He just has to find… Ah, there he is.

Snagging Tsumugi away from his conversation with Eichi is gratifyingly easy. Just a simple tug of his fingers and Tsumugi turns like a magnet finding true north all over again, and something clenches in the pit of Natsume’s stomach, warm. He kisses the back of Tsumugi’s hand. Then again. Then further up and up because it feels too nice to just _stop_ and why should he?

Tsumugi is laughing by the time Natsume has kissed his way up his arm, and Natsume buries his face in the curve of Tsumugi’s neck, muffling his own laughter there between soft open-mouthed kisses. A pleasant flush sprawls across Tsumugi’s cheeks, the tips of his ears an endearing red right here where Natsume can kiss those too- and does.

“Natsume-kun,” Tsumugi murmurs but nothing more, like he was simply saying Natsume’s name to hold it in his mouth.

“Tsumugi-niisan,” Natsume whispers back, champagne bold. He ignores the way Tsumugi twitches beneath his hands, but it’s impossible to miss how Tsumugi holds him, anchors him steady with a hand at his hip and another curling along his shoulder blade. Always so gentle and stable. “Happy New Year. Let’s… make this a good year Together, shall We?”

“Is that a fortune? If you say it like that, it’s bound to come true.” Tsumugi kisses his temple, and Natsume leans into the book-warm smell of him. “Through hard work, if nothing else.”

Natsume closes his eyes. “We’ll make it Work. We always Do.”

* * *

> Kissing away tears

“This is Ridiculous,” says Natsume, his voice thick and wobbling dangerously around the edges. He brings a hand up to cover his mouth, his cheeks, to give him _any_ kind of protection against feeling so vulnerable. “You’re not seeing This, do you understand Me? None of this is happening right Now.”

Tsumugi feels cracked open and warm, a sweet ache that runs down the centerline of him, as he reaches out. He tugs Natsume’s hand away by the wrist, so gently. Natsume doesn’t fight him. He just lets out a shuddering sigh and looks askance, somewhere to the left of Tsumugi’s shoulder. “It’s only natural to be emotional, Natsume-kun. I think it’s sweet.”

“It’s Dumb, is what it Is,” Natsume grumbles. He sniffs and then looks utterly disgusted with himself when the sound is snotty instead of delicate the way he most likely intended. “You’re Graduating, not Dying. We’re going to keep working Together. There’s no reason for me to be acting like This.”

A tear streaks down Natsume’s face, joining the rest that have been silently escaping him this whole time, and Tsumugi-

Can’t quite help himself.

He leans down, that darling amount that separates him and Natsume, and kisses Natsume’s cheek, right where the salty line is. “Don’t be embarrassed,” he whispers. “I’m going to miss you too.”

“No one ever said anything about _missing_ You, Senpai!” But Natsume’s hands grip his jacket tightly, and he’s leaning into Tsumugi and they both know he can’t be straightforward when he’s embarrassed. “We’re going to be together from now On. There will be no time to miss You.”

And Tsumugi kisses his cheek again, sweet and forgiving, and hearing everything Natsume can’t quite bring himself to say just yet. “Of course, Natsume-kun.”

* * *

> A kiss on the nape

Natsume gathers Tsumugi’s hair into a loose bundle, curls escaping every which way, and he lets out a sigh. “You’re really going to just let this mess keep Growing, aren’t You?”

“I made a promise,” Tsumugi says, which really, Natsume should have anticipated, since it’s the only answer he’s ever gotten out of Tsumugi about his hair. The smile Tsumugi shoots over his shoulder is a little more unexpected. Charming, even. “I’ve gotten better at braiding it out of my way, don’t you think?”

“The stylists despair of You.” Natsume side-steps the question entirely before frowning. His thumb smooths across the exposed knob of Tsumugi’s spine. Then, quietly, he says, “You have. Gotten better at many things.”

“Ah, what’s this? A compliment from Natsume-kun? How unexpected.”

It’s a gracious way to allow Natsume to pass over his moment of honesty, a kindness Tsumugi often extends as he makes himself the butt of some unspoken joke, or makes it easy to dismiss him, but Natsume finds himself unwilling to take the opening this time. Instead, he rocks forward onto the balls of his feet and kisses that exposed, smooth arch of Tsumugi’s neck, so often hidden. Tsumugi goes still. Barely breathing. “You should be honored,” he whispers, close enough that the words are pressed into Tsumugi’s skin. “To catch my attention like this, senpai. Are you going to take responsibility?”

Fingers thread through his, both of them now holding the weight of Tsumugi’s hair over his shoulder. “I made a promise,” Tsumugi says again, and this time, finally, Natsume understands. “I always have.”

* * *

> A kiss on the foot

“I don’t need your help getting these things Off, Senpai,” Natsume grumbles, but he doesn’t complain when Tsumugi kneels in front of him to help with the boots anyway. Tsumugi delicately cups his heel with one hand.

“You work so hard,” Tsumugi says, running his fingers along the top of his foot, the curve of his arch. Not quite a massage. Not quite anything else. The rubber sole and leather is a pleasant weight in Tsumugi’s hands. “Is that not something to admire, Natsume-kun?”

“Coming from someone like You? I suppose it can be considered a Compliment.” The toe of Natsume’s boot nudges against the soft underside of Tsumugi’s chin, tilting his face up. Tsumugi lets his gaze travel up- and up and up the expanse of Natsume’s long legs until he meets Natsume’s gaze. Natsume’s eyes, gold and half-lidded, watch him almost lazily as Tsumugi wraps his hand around Natsume’s delicate ankle.

And he kisses the side of Natsume’s boot, keeping steady eye contact all the while.

Natsume’s breath audibly catches. Tsumugi can feel the way he tenses and relaxes, an uncertain flex before Natsume allows the full weight of his leg to fall into Tsumugi’s hands, trusting. Tsumugi lets out a sigh, content, and kisses the leather again, and again, and again, as he draws Natsume’s boot off, until his lips meet warm skin and he stops. Sets the boot to the side. Finally drops his gaze.

A weight presses into his chest.

Tsumugi glances up to find Natsume watching him still, booted heel firm against his sternum, chin resting delicately against his hand. Natsume’s lips part. “Well?” he asks, and Tsumugi’s heart misses a beat at the deliberate lowness of his voice. “There’s one More. Finish your Job, Senpai. Don’t Start something you don’t plan on Finishing.”

Breathing out, Tsumugi ducks his head to hide his smile and says, “Yes, Natsume-kun.”


End file.
